Christmas: Edinburgh volunteers to have provided 400,000 hot meals for those in need in by the end of 2020

A band of kind hearted volunteers showed the true spirit of Christmas when they spent the day packing up thousands of hot meals to ensure families and individuals in need would not go hungry.

Members of Leith Theatre, who are temporarily unable to tread the boards due to the COVID-19 restrictions, gathered together in their old Ferry Road stomping ground to help the Empty Kitchens Full Hearts initiative pack up the vital meals – which included breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Empty Kitchens Full Hearts provides hot meals for anyone who needs them – with no referrals required – and they also provide a walk in service at certain times of the day.

The Leith Theatre team helped them pack over 3000 meals on Christmas Day, bringing the total meals they have provided for people this year up to 384,379.

Leith Theatre volunteers hard at work packing meals for the Empty Kitchen Full Hearts initiative

Recent weeks has seen demand for hot meals more than double. The team believe they could reach 400,000 meals distributed by Hogmanay.

An Empty Kitchens, Full Hearts spokesperson said: “We had a full crew working down at Leith Theatre, sending out day packs and a particularly shout-out goes to the amazing crew at Edinburgh Food Social for providing the turkey dinners for all our clients.

“As the weather gets colder, we are expecting a huge increase in demand for our services. Already our hot service line has increased significantly.

“Winter will compound this with many people having to make hard choices like whether they pay for heating or food.”

Visit www.emptykitchens.co.uk for more information and search for Full Hearts Fighting Fuel Poverty at www.crowdfunder.co.uk to donate to the cause.